A Motorcycle Tale: DC to the Dragon

A few weeks back, two friends and I attempted a weekend ride from DC to the Tail of the Dragon and back! We had an awesome time and were in the peak of the fall foliage!

I brought along a Canon 60d and a couple GoPro's and have been working on an 8-9min edit of the trip. Not quite finished the full edit yet, but here is a teaser that I threw together, let me know what you think!

I usually prefer stills and let the pics do most of the story telling. I think that is because most normal folks cannot make video of your caliber. Great job. Sorry this trip got cut short, but based on the video you did not miss anything by not making it to the dragon. The dragon is an experience and there are great roads all around, but the roads you guys came on were also very nice. Glad to see that no was injured in the accidents. Please post in the future, you guys are definitely talented. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o>

Outstanding video.
Sorry you didn't reach your goal.
You clearly still had a great time,
except for the accident of course.
I rode the dragon in September,
in the rain:eek1.
It was still great and I will go back.
Where is the lake you camped by?
Thanks

I really enjoyed it. Sorry about the crash. Can't think of anything better than soaking in a hot spring to relieve the soreness from a get off. Great editing and I would love to see some more ride reports in the video variety.

Thanks for all the feedback guys! It's awesome to hear you guys like it!

We used a lot of gopro footage for the riding shots and the interview sessions where I pulled the narration from was on the last day, I just had everyone sit in front of the camera and tell the story from beginning to end. Then I picked through to find which version I liked for each part.

I edit in Adobe Premiere and After Effects. The lake we stayed at was Lake Watauga just south of Mountain City TN.

We are planning to shoot another trip next year! I'm really hoping at some point I will be able to ride/document the TAT!

Nice shooting! First, I like the video, but since you asked for constructive criticism (and recognizing that every editor has their own style...)

Minor quibbles, since you clearly have good control of the editing process

1. Audio between narration and music was a bit off. Bump up the narration bits a bit.

2. I've never been a fan of the black over narration sequencing. Just sorta feels jerky to me. A couple of the black sections felt a bit long.

3. Really like the quality of the shooting and editing other than those two items.

4. A bit more of an introduction to you guys as people to set up the story would have helped grab the viewer. How long you been friends? How long have you been riding? Who is on what bike? Maybe some lower thirds on the closeups?

Sure, we are riders and just about any story with riding will get a LOT of attention on ADV, but the stories that matter are about the people who ride.

Reject any of that if you wish--I watched it a couple of times and enjoyed it as it is!

Thank you for the feedback radianrider! I definitely agree with you on the black screens over narration. Unfortunately that was one of the spots that I just didn't have enough fitting video to go over the narration :/ I also had the gain too low on my camera using the external Rode Videomic... so my audio was quiet and the more I turned it up in post the more background hiss I got too

Thank you for the feedback radianrider! I definitely agree with you on the black screens over narration. Unfortunately that was one of the spots that I just didn't have enough fitting video to go over the narration :/ I also had the gain too low on my camera using the external Rode Videomic... so my audio was quiet and the more I turned it up in post the more background hiss I got too

Haven't used Premier, but Final Cut has some filters that analyze the hiss and remove some of it in post. Premier has upped its game, so might have that feature. I always forget to get a few seconds of just ambient noise so I can actually use it.

I was doing a shoot with the Marion County Prosecutor a few years ago and accidentally turned off the mic when I moved a camera. Discovered it after five minutes (always wear headphones--except this time) and had to get him to reshoot. He was gracious, but not happy. Learned something on that shoot for sure!

Haha oh man that would suck! I will have to do some searching and see how well the hiss/reduction works in premiere. And thanks, I can't wait to get out and shoot another trip! Hopefully longer this time!